Norm MacDonald has died

[Purple Toupee]

Absolutely gutted about this, Norm was probably the most naturally funny person on the planet. He obviously looked ill during a lot of Norm Macdonald Live but I thought he looked much better on the Netflix show so it's still a shock.

A lot of great clips posted already but I loved him winding up Gordon Ramsay on Conan, doubt anyone else could get this big a laugh from pretending to chop an orange: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdOXM3I_5hk

[Smeraldina Rima]

Allen says something like "You're feeling better" and Norm says "We're not supposed to talk about that"...

He had been sick and come back, which is why Steve O'Donnell is there to read the jokes. O'Donnell discusses it from 19 minutes here.

[Twit 2]

Absolutely gutted about this, Norm was probably the most naturally funny person on the planet. He obviously looked ill during a lot of Norm Macdonald Live but I thought he looked much better on the Netflix show so it's still a shock.

A lot of great clips posted already but I loved him winding up Gordon Ramsay on Conan, doubt anyone else could get this big a laugh from pretending to chop an orange: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdOXM3I_5hk

Why would you become a cook?

[Small Potatoes]

There's an article about Norm in the Guardian today, but unfortunately it's by that tit David Baddiel so not sure I can bring myself to read it.

[Twit 2]

It starts out well enough and then he starts shoehorning himself and his hobby horses in. Twat.

[Small Potatoes]

It starts out well enough and then he stars shoehorning himself and his hobby horses in. Twat.

Yes, I weakened and read it and am now feeling remorse. As ever, it's all about him. Dickhead.

[up_the_hampipe]

The header of the article says he could make you laugh by doing "almost nothing". There's also been a lot of tributes talking about him being effortless, or that he wasn't telling jokes or that the material wasn't always good, but he was. I really don't think he would have liked that. He seemed to work very hard and take great pride in creating comedy, I don't think he'd want to be remembered as this goof who just said things funny.

[Doomy Dwyer]

There's an article about Norm in the Guardian today, but unfortunately it's by that tit David Baddiel

This is even worse news than the actual death. The only comedian whose untimely death I want to read about in an article written by David Baddiel is David Baddiel's, via a ouija board.

[Twit 2]

And even then you'd end up smashing the glass into your own face to make it all stop.

[lankyguy95]

The header of the article says he could make you laugh by doing "almost nothing". There's also been a lot of tributes talking about him being effortless, or that he wasn't telling jokes or that the material wasn't always good, but he was. I really don't think he would have liked that. He seemed to work very hard and take great pride in creating comedy, I don't think he'd want to be remembered as this goof who just said things funny.

Yeah it's a tricky line. There is an element in which he was effortless, like Funny was a part of who he was, oozing out of him like it did Peter Cook or Groucho Marx in their own ways. But it's not the same as saying he put in no effort. The amount of projects he did, the volume of ideas and constant creativity are just not the workings of a lazy man. Flaky perhaps, but not lazy.

It's more akin to the way Usain Bolt was often described as effortless and (super)naturally gifted, despite his mentions of at times training so intensely to the point of vomiting. Norm evidently worked very hard on projects, as has been verified in the past by those who worked with him. He was also so naturally funny that when he spoke you never got any sense that he was working for the laugh. You do get that sense with almost every other comic, even great ones, and that's one of the things that distinguishes Norm.

[mr. logic]

I think this is evidenced most clearly by the fact that, given the opportunity to do his own chummy podcast like Maron, he made it one of the best comedy shows of all time, complete with an end section of jokes as brilliantly clever as any in his finest stand up routines, jokes which had his prints all over them. It's exactly what you say: He just made it look easy.

[selectivememory]

Yeah, was going to write something similar, but you summed it up well.

[jobotic]

Effortless like Hendrix


Neither lazy

[wrec]

There was a Grauniad article about free jazz the other day, and someone replied to the tweet, illustrated with a photo of Coltrane, with "just laziness", which made me genuinely LOL. There are always people who think nothing is happening if they can't see the joins.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Stuff like moth joke, dolphin joke, taxi driver riddle etc where he'd take a bar staple and turn fill it with digressions and weird characters is the opposite of low effort or "almost nothing" - you split it up and there's loads of little polished bits all working together - misdirections, references, callbacks...

"almost nothing" means he could make you forget he was a professional performer when you listened to him, you suspended disbelief and he was just some guy. I can't imagine saying the same about an actor. This guy was doing almost nothing, I forgot he was even acting

Coltrane, with "just laziness", which made me genuinely LOL.

Yeah, when I'm slacking off and not giving a fuck I often memorise elaborate chord and scale patterns and mentally construct full band harmonies with them.

[Mr Banlon]

https://youtu.be/6WfdlZMbAlM

Video title is stupid but I love the clip.

What's also funny about his Kojak story is it's complete bullshit.

[idunnosomename]

Lmao the "spoke to him on Twitter once" and then "of course he was cancelled" from Baddiel. Surprised he didnt squeeze Corbyn and online trolls into there.

[Echo Valley 2-6809]

I'd still take that Baddiel piece over James Corden's tribute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn9M552Bio

Despite that show of alleged sincerity I don't think Corden got Norm really. Like the youtube comment under this interview says, "Corden is the only late night host dumb enough to not let Norm talk"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJHfCGD0p3A  (Bonus of Norm telling Corden what 'nonplussed' means.)

[Bronzy]

Absolutely gutted about this, Norm was probably the most naturally funny person on the planet. He obviously looked ill during a lot of Norm Macdonald Live but I thought he looked much better on the Netflix show so it's still a shock.

A lot of great clips posted already but I loved him winding up Gordon Ramsay on Conan, doubt anyone else could get this big a laugh from pretending to chop an orange: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdOXM3I_5hk

Paul Newman told me, you never get over it

[WhoMe]

Shit news. Slightly put out by the 'most famous for SNL' lines in various obituaries, feels demeaning for one of the funniest people to have lived.

[Carpool Dragon]

Uploaded those bootlegs to Internet Archive if anyone still wants them:
https://archive.org/details/lrjp5k/Irvine+March+2020.mp3

[holdover]

https://twitter.com/jennyyangtv/status/1438174701432414208

I hear you're a dead sex pest now Norm :(

[Keebleman]

Courtney Thorne-Smith talking about *that* Conan O'Brien appearance. 

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/09/norm-macdonald-carrot-top-courtney-thorne-smith-conan?fbclid=IwAR01IDKdqrT_jXYTVGT9cgtHIBXCNRQK9_6ekLGKZQtWR84mvaz6nkDOm2A

Carrot Top has yet to comment.

[chveik]

https://twitter.com/jennyyangtv/status/1438174701432414208

I hear you're a dead sex pest now Norm :(

the one thing we didn't want to happen :(

[up_the_hampipe]

https://twitter.com/jennyyangtv/status/1438174701432414208

I hear you're a dead sex pest now Norm :(

Ah fuck.

[Cuellar]

I mean it was obvious/inevitable

[Cuellar]

Alright maybe not obvious, but inevitable

[up_the_hampipe]

I mean it was obvious/inevitable

I genuinely didn't expect him to have any problems beyond some rubbish opinions on political and social issues.

[lankyguy95]

I didn't know he was sick.

[Indomitable Spirit]

i mean this guy was a real jerk!